21. Surah Al Anbiya'
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَذَا
النُّونِ إِذ
ذَّهَبَ مُغَاضِبًا
فَظَنَّ أَن
لَّن نَّقْدِرَ
عَلَيْهِ...
21: 87. And remember Dhu al Nun, when he departed in wrath: he imagined that We had no power over him!
C2744. Dhu al Nun. "the man of the Fish or the Whale", is the title of Jonah (Yunus), because he was swallowed by a large Fish or Whale.
He was the prophet raised to warn the Assyrian capital Nineveh. For Nineveh see n. 1478 to 10:98.
His story is told in 37:139-149. When his first warning was unheeded by the people, he denounced Allah's wrath on them. But they repented and Allah forgave them for the time being.
Jonah, meanwhile, departed in wrath, discouraged at the apparent failure of his mission. He should have remained in the most discouraging circumstances, and relied on the power of Allah; for Allah had power both over Nineveh and over the Messenger He had sent to Nineveh. He went away to the sea and took a ship, but apparently the sailors threw him out as a man of bad omen in a storm.
He was swallowed by a big Fish (or Whale), but in the depth of the darkness, he cried to Allah and confessed his weakness.
...فَنَادَى فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ...
But he cried through the depths of darkness,
The "darkness" may be interpreted both physically and spiritually;
- physically, as the darkness of the night and the storm and the Fish's body;
- spiritually as the darkness in his soul, his extreme distress in the situation which he had brought on himself.
Allah Most Gracious forgave him. He was cast out ashore; he was given the shelter of a plant in his state of mental and physical lassitude. He was refreshed and strengthened, and the work of his mission prospered. Thus he overcame all his disappointment by repentance and Faith, and Allah accepted him.
فَاسْتَجَبْنَا
لَهُ وَنَجَّيْنَاهُ
مِنَ الْغَمِّ...
21: 88. So We listened to him: and delivered him from distress:
...وَكَذَلِكَ نُنجِي الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٨٨﴾
and thus do We deliver those who have faith.
Other versions:
21:87 [al-Anbiyaa, Mecca 73]
AND [remember] him of the great fish 82 - when he went off in wrath, thinking that We had no power over him! 83 But then he cried out in the deep darkness [of his distress]: "There is no deity save Thee! Limitless art Thou in Thy glory! Verily, I have done wrong!" 84
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21:88
And so We responded unto him and delivered him from [his] distress: for thus do We deliver all who have faith.
[[82 I.e., the Prophet Jonah, who is said to have been swallowed by a "great fish", as mentioned in
37:139 ff. and more fully narrated in the Old Testament (The Book of Jonah).
83 According to the Biblical account (which more or less agrees with the Qur'anic references to his story), Jonah was a prophet sent to the people of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. At first his preaching was disregarded by his people, and he left them in anger, thus abandoning the mission entrusted to him by God; in the words of the Qur'an (37:140), "he fled like a runaway slave". The allegory of his
temporary punishment and his subsequent rescue and redemption is referred to elsewhere in the Qur'an (i.e., in 37: 139-148) and explained in the corresponding notes. It is to that punishment, repentance and salvation that the present and the next verse allude. (The redemption of Jonah's people is mentioned in 10:98 and 37:147-148.)
84 Lit, "I was among the wrongdoers". ]]
37. Surah As-Saffat (Those Ranged In Ranks)
Mecca 56 [182 verses]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَإِنَّ
يُونُسَ لَمِنَ
الْمُرْسَلِينَ
﴿١٣٩﴾
37: 139. So also was Jonah among those sent (by us).
C4119. For illustrative passages, see 21:87-88, n. 2744, and 68:48-50.
Jonah's mission was to the city of Nineveh, then steeped in wickedness. He was rejected and he denounced Allah's wrath on them, but they repented and obtained Allah's forgiveness. But Jonah "departed in wrath" (21:87), forgetting that Allah has Mercy as well as forgiveness.
See the notes following i.e. n. 2744.
إِذْ
أَبَقَ إِلَى
الْفُلْكِ
الْمَشْحُونِ
﴿١٤٠﴾
37: 140. When he ran away (like slave from captivity) to the ship (fully) laden,
C4120. Jonah ran away from Nineveh like a slave from captivity. He should have stuck to his post. He was hasty, and went off to take a ship. As if he could escape from Allah's Plan!
فَسَاهَمَ
فَكَانَ مِنْ
الْمُدْحَضِينَ
﴿١٤١﴾
37: 141. He (agreed to) cast lots, and he was condemned:
C4121. The ship was fully laden and met foul weather. The sailors, according to their superstition, wanted to find out who was responsible for the ill-luck: a fugitive slave would cause such ill-luck. The lot fell on Jonah, and he was cast off .
فَالْتَقَمَهُ الْحُوتُ...
37: 142. Then the big Fish did swallow him,
C4122. The rivers of Mesopotamia have some huge fishes. The word used here is Hat, which may be a fish or perhaps a crocodile. If it were in an open northern sea, it might be a whale. The locality is not mentioned:
in the Old Testament he is said to have taken ship in the port of Joppa (now Jaffa) in the Mediterranean (Jonah, 1:3), which would be not less than 600 miles from Nineveh.
The Tigris river, mentioned by some of our Commentators, is more likely, and it contains some fishes of extraordinary size.
...وَهُوَ
مُلِيمٌ ﴿١٤٢﴾
and he had done acts worthy of blame.
C4123. See n. 4120.
فَلَوْلَا
أَنَّهُ كَانَ
مِنْ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ
﴿١٤٣﴾
37: 143. Had it not been that he (repented and) glorified Allah,
C4124. "But he cried through the depths of darkness, 'There is no god but Thee: glory to Thee! I was indeed wrong!" (21:87).
لَلَبِثَ
فِي بَطْنِهِ
إِلَى يَوْمِ
يُبْعَثُونَ
﴿١٤٤﴾
37: 144. He would certainly have remained inside the Fish till the Day of Resurrection.
C4125. This is just the idiom. This was to be the burial and the grave of Jonah. If he had not repented, he could not have got out of the body of the creature that had swallowed him, until the Day of Resurrection, when all the dead would be raised up.
فَنَبَذْنَاهُ
بِالْعَرَاء
وَهُوَ سَقِيمٌ
﴿١٤٥﴾
37: 145. But We cast him forth on the naked shore in a state of sickness,
C4126. Cf. 37:89 above.
His strange situation might well have caused him to be ill. He wanted fresh air and solitude. He got both in the open plain, and the abundantly shady Gourd Plant or some fruitful tree like it gave him both shade and sustenance. The Gourd is a creeper that can spread over any roof or ruined structure.
وَأَنبَتْنَا
عَلَيْهِ شَجَرَةً
مِّن يَقْطِينٍ
﴿١٤٦﴾
37: 146. And We caused to grow over him, a spreading plant of the Gourd kind,
وَأَرْسَلْنَاهُ
إِلَى مِئَةِ
أَلْفٍ أَوْ
يَزِيدُونَ
﴿١٤٧﴾
37: 147. And We sent him (on a mission) to a hundred thousand (men) or more.
C4127. The city of Nineveh was a very large city. The Old Testament says: "Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey" (Jonah, 3:3); "wherein are more than six score thousand persons" (Jonah, 4:11).
In other words its circuit was about 45 miles, and its population was over a hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants.
فَآمَنُوا...
37: 148. And they believed;
...فَمَتَّعْنَاهُمْ إِلَى حِينٍ ﴿١٤٨﴾
so We permitted them to enjoy (their life) for a while.
C4128. They repented and believed, and Nineveh got a new lease of life. For the dates to which Jonah may be referred, and the vicissitudes of the City's history as the seat of the Assyrian Empire, see notes 1478-79
The lessons from Jonah's story are:
- that no man should take upon himself to judge of Allah's wrath or Allah's mercy;
- that nevertheless Allah forgives true repentance, whether in a righteous man, or in a wicked city; and
- that Allah's Plan will always prevail, and can never be defeated.
Asad’s Version:
37:139 AND, BEHOLD, Jonah was indeed one of Our message-bearers
(37:140) when he fled like a runaway slave onto a laden ship. 54
(37:141) And then they cast lots, and he was the one who lost; 55
"And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this tempest is upon you .... So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging."
(37:142) [and they cast him into the sea,] whereupon the great fish swallowed him, for he had been blameworthy. 56
(37:143) And had he not been of those who [even in the deep darkness of their distress are able to] extol God's limitless glory, 57
(37:144) he would indeed have remained in its belly till the Day when all shall be raised from the dead:
(37: 145) but We caused him to be cast forth on a desert shore, sick [at heart] as he was,
(37: 146) and caused a creeping plant to grow over him [out of the barren soil]. 58
37:147 And [then] We sent him [once again] to [his people,] a hundred thousand [souls] or more:
(37:148) and [this time] they believed [in him] 59 - and so We allowed them to enjoy their life during the time allotted to them. 60
[[Asad’s notes - 54 I.e., when he abandoned the mission with which he had been entrusted by God (see surah 21 , note 83, which gives the first part of Jonah's story), and thus, in the words of the Bible (The Book of Jonah i, 3 and 10), committed the sin of "fleeing from the presence of the Lord". In its primary significance, the infinitive noun ibaq (derived from the verb abaqa) denotes "a slave's running- away from his master"; and Jonah is spoken of as having "fled like a runaway slave" because - although he was God's message-bearer - he abandoned his task under the stress of violent anger. The subsequent mention of "the laden ship" alludes to the central, allegorical part of Jonah's story. The ship ran into a storm and was about to founder; and the mariners "said everyone to his fellow, Come and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us" (The Book of Jonah i, 7) - a procedure to which Jonah agreed.
55 Lit., "he cast lots [with the mariner], and was among the losers". According to the Biblical account (The Book of Jonah i, 1 0-15), Jonah told them that he had "fled from the presence of the Lord", and that it was because of this sin of his that they all were now in danger of drowning. ]]
56 In all the three instances where Jonah's "great fish" is explicitly mentioned in the Qur'an (as al- hut in the above verse and in 68:48, and an-nun in 21 :87), it carries the definite article al. This may possibly be due to the fact that the legend of Jonah was and is so widely known that every reference to the allegory of "the great fish" is presumed to be self-explanatory. The inside of the fish that "swallowed" Jonah apparently symbolizes the deep darkness of spiritual distress of which 21 :87 speaks: he distress at having "fled like a runaway slave" from his prophetic mission and, thus, "from the presence of the Lord". Parenthetically, the story is meant to show that, since "man has been created weak" (4:28), even prophets are not immune against all the failings inherent in human nature.
57 I.e., to remember God and to repent: see 21 :87, which reveals in its very formulation the universal purport of Jonah's story.
58 I.e., to shade and comfort him. Thus, rounding off the allegory of Jonah and the fish, the Qur'an points out in the figurative manner so characteristic of its style that God, who can cause a plant to grow out of the most arid and barren soil, can equally well cause a heart lost in darkness to come back to light and spiritual life.
59 Cf. the reference to the people of Jonah in 10:98. For the Biblical version of this story, see The Book of Jonah iii.
60 Lit., "for a time": i.e., for the duration of their natural lives (Razi; also Manar XI, 483).]]
Jonah and the Fish [Yuksel’s version]
37:139 And Jonah was one of the messengers.
37:140 When he escaped to the charged ship.
37:141 He was guilty, so he became among the losers.
37:142 Thus a whale swallowed him, and he was the one to blame.
37:143 Had it not been that he was one of those who implored,
37:144 He would have stayed in its belly until the day of resurrection.
37:145 So We threw him on the shore while he was sick.
37:146 We caused seaweed to grow on him.
37:147 We sent him to a hundred thousand, or more.
37:148 They acknowledged, so We gave them enjoyment for a time.
